The term “red light therapy” or “photobiomodulation” has become more commonly used in the health and wellness community in the last few years. New products and brands are appearing with offerings that span a vast range of benefits ranging from higher energy levels, to physical performance enhancement, and more. Numerous research and published studies support many of the benefits.

Furthermore, various practitioners and influencers in the health and wellness space are actively promoting the benefits of red light. Some professional sports teams now have red light therapy rooms, to capitalize on its benefits. All of this creates a lot of buzz. Thus, more people are starting to look at red light products as options for their wellness needs.

Many of these options are viable, and many benefits are documented and well-supported by clinical and exploratory research. However, if you are a novice to this rapidly growing field called red light therapy, you may find yourself disoriented. There are so many products and so many options to choose from, and the terminology can be confusing.

 

Red light vs near infrared light

The term “red light therapy” is often used liberally and may be extended to include near infrared light therapy. Although similar in principle, these forms of light therapy have some distinct differences and should be differentiated. There are similar effects in which both induce biochemical mechanisms that stimulate cellular processes.

One important difference between red and near infrared forms of light is the wavelength of the light. Red light falls into the 620-700 nm wavelength spectrum and is visible to the human eye. Near infrared light falls into the 800-2500 nm wavelength spectrum. This form of light is not visible to the naked eye. However, Near infrared light can penetrate deeper into the body, and even can pass through the skull. Therefore, emerges the term transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM), which refers to the near infrared light therapy intended to stimulate the brain.

The focus of this article is to provide introductory information about red light therapy for the newcomers interested in this space.

 

Brief history of light therapy

There can be disagreements on where actual roots of the red light therapy begin. Some can argue that the father of light therapy was Dr. Niels Ryberg Finsen (1860-1904), a Danish physician and scientist. Dr. Finsen studied effects of the concentrated electric light on patients with lupus vulgaris, a form of tuberculosis. In 1903 he received a Nobel Prize in psychology for his innovative treatment method using light.

Dr. Finsen’s work is scientifically important and has major historic significance. However, it is more common to start the clock of modern red-light therapy history with Dr. Endre Master (1903–1984). A Hungarian physician, Dr. Master developed the first low-level laser (LLL) device in 1967. In his studies of LLL’s effects on cancer, he accidentally noticed its effects of accelerated wound healing in laboratory mice.

Today, more than half-a-century later, scientists, engineers and medical professionals are still studying the effects of red light on the human body. The modern trailblazers of light therapy have access to new technologies which were not available to its original pioneers. Furthermore, it also expanded the understanding of the science behind the effects of red-light therapy on human physiology.

 

Light therapy research and advancement

Numerous studies have been conducted and published, advancing the depth of understanding of light therapy, and expanding the scope of its applications. Thus, to date, there are over six thousand published research papers on the subject of light therapy.

New research has provided important data supporting therapeutic effects of red light. Still, despite years of research, many consider red light to be therapeutically controversial and ambiguous modality. This happens due to its status as an alternative therapy which stands outside of the traditional medical protocols.

However, research, new technologies, and modern design and manufacturing capabilities are helping to shift the state of red-light therapy. Thus, some new protocols include red light therapy as a modality for a number of indications in dentistry. Furthermore, there are recent studies that highlight the benefits of red light in other medical applications for humans. Some of these new applications go beyond the scope of general wellness and cross into the medical domain. The use of red light for animal care is even more extensive.

With regards to the general wellness applications, red light therapy acceptance is growing even faster. As the costs of new products decrease, the adoption increases. For example, red-light LEDs show the same effect as low level lasers. As LEDs are safer, and cheaper to manufacture, there is growth in new LED red light therapy devices for numerous applications. With quantity comes quality. The interest in the products increases, as more users recognize the benefits, acceptance and demand grow.

 

What are the types of red-light therapy devices and applications?

There are red light panels, red light masks, red light intranasal devices, red light beds, red light helmets and simple red-light lamps. The diversity of available light therapy products is growing every year. With multitude and diversity come new designs.

The terminology is also evolving. For example, photobiomodulation is a commonly used term for light therapy, particularly red and near infrared light therapies. Yet, there are  (PBM), and red light therapy is one of them.

For example, there is a range of red-light therapy devices focused on topical applications. Thus, this group includes devices intended to improve hair growth, skin aging, clarity and wrinkles. Other devices come with a promise to shrink your waistline. Importantly, most of them can cite support of at least one published research study.

The majority of devices used for topical applications are red light panels. They come in different sizes and with different power options. Some panels include both red light and near infrared light sources. Other therapy devices in the topical category include red.

 

Red light therapy devices for muscle relaxation and recovery

Yet another group of red-light therapy products offers help with muscle relaxation and recovery, and promises physical performance enhancement. Red light therapy panels and beds are the most common design options in this. However, this is the domain where red light devices are competing with near infrared light devices. There are also devices that combine both red and near infrared light, like Vielight X-Plus, for example, a wearable PBM device designed for personal, at-home use.

The list of use cases for red light therapy devices goes on, and there will be much more to come

Introduction

In our attempt to help many interested in the subject of photobiomodulation therapy and the science behind it, we asked two well-respected scientists and researchers to join us. They kindly agreed to participate in a photobiomodulation therapy discussion and even dived into its applications, including transcranial photbiomodulation. They offered their unique takes on this interesting and promising subject matter. To facilitate this discussion, we came up with three very straight-forward questions for them to answer.

Questions:

1: What is photobiomodulation in general, and what is transcranial photobiomodulation specifically?

2: Based on your research work, what do you view as the most promising areas for photobiomodulation applications?

3: Why have you chosen those areas of research, and what could be the potential benefits of photobiomodulation in those areas?

It was our intention to cover the subject of photobiomodulation more holistically and to offer a deeper and wider perspective on it. At the same time we asked our subject matter experts to keep their answers to a more popular format, as much as possible. Thus, the three questions helped us to engage our guests into an intriguing photbiomodulation therapy discussion.

Guests

Our guests for this blog post are Prof. Michael Hamblin, Ph.D and Prof. Jay Sanguinetti, Ph.D. Prof. Hamblin is a retired Principal Investigator at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, an Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Affiliated Faculty of Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology. Prof. Sanguinetti is Research Assistant Professor and Head of the NICE lab (Non-Invasive Cognitive Enhancement) at the University of New Mexico. Both guests are talented and prolific researchers with impressive resumes and significant accomplishments.

Perhaps, the generational gap is the major difference between these two men of science. Prof. Hamblin has recently retired after a long and prolific career in science, research and teaching. However, he carries on with his research and continues to add more scientific papers to the body of those numerous which he has already published. On the other hand, Prof. Sangunetti belongs to a younger generation. The body of his research work is growing and gaining momentum and attention. Earlier this year, he gave a presentation at the TEDx Talks.

Now that our guests are introduced, let us get to an exciting photobiomodulation therapy discussion and their thoughts on the subject of what photobiomodualtion is, does and could do in the future.

Michael Hamblin 

Michael Hamblin gets the first go at this. In his answers to our three question, Dr. Hamblin offered the following thoughts and insights based on his long and prolific career as a researcher and scientist.

Brief photobiomodulation history and definition

Photobiomodulation is the broad term applied to the therapeutic use of light at wavelengths and power levels that do not cause any damage to the tissue. In actual fact, the therapeutic benefits of light have been recognized for over one hundred years. In the early 1900s after the invention of the electric light bulb, electric light baths became popular to treat a wide range of diseases. Next came heliotherapy or the therapeutic use of sunlight, and clinics were constructed in mountainous areas to expose people to the sun. In the 1960s with the invention of the laser, low-level laser therapy (LLLT) became the next method to apply light to the body. Since the recent availability of LED devices, these have now become the method of choice to apply photobiomodulation. This shift happened due to the LED’s low cost, safety, and suitability for home use.

Due to the optical properties of tissue, red and near-infrared wavelengths are considered to be optimum for penetration into tissue. Nevertheless, blue, green and yellow light are still being investigated. Scientists are actively investigating the mechanisms of action of photobiomodulation at molecular, cellular, and tissue levels and new discoveries are still being made.

Transcranial Photobiomodulation

Transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) describes the application of light to the head for a diverse range of brain disorders. LEDs are often employed to shine light onto the forehead, where there is no hair. Others use lasers because, they claim, they penetrate better through the scalp and skull. One of the hottest areas of debate is to what extent the light needs to penetrate into the actual brain tissue to be effective and to what extent there is a systemic effect based on light absorption by intervening tissues, or, indeed, by the whole body.

Benefits and application of transcranial photobiomodulation

Photobiomdulation for the brain is the most promising area because it could be beneficial for such a wide range of disorders.

Traumatic Brain Damage

The first group is traumatic brain damage. This can be caused by head injuries, strokes, or brain deprivation of oxygen after a heart attack or perinatal difficulties.

Degenerative Brain Disorders

The second group is degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s diseases, various forms of dementia, different viral infections, toxicity from chemotherapy or heavy metals.

Psychiatric Disorders

The third group is psychiatric disorders such as major depression, anxiety, insomnia, autism, and addiction.

Cognitive Enhancement

The fourth group is cognitive enhancement for aging individuals and even young healthy persons.

Benefits of Photobiomodulation

The potential benefits of photobiomodulation (PBM) are many and various. PBM has been shown to increase cerebral blood flow and oxygenation, which are decreased in nearly all brain disorders. Moreover, brain mitochondria are stimulated increasing the vital energy source for cells called adenosine triphosphate or ATP. PBM decreases inflammation.

Neuroinflammation is involved in the majority of brain diseases together with oxidative stress, which is also reduced by PBM. PBM increases the formation of new brain cells by stimulating neural stem cells. Furthermore, it can also stimulate the formation of new connections between existing brain cells. Finally, photobiomodulation can help to clear plaques formed from aggregated protein within the brain such as beta amyloid in Alzheimer’s.

Jay Sanguinetti joins us for his take on the subject of photobiomodulation. This is Prof. Sanguinetti’s second appearence on our blog. Originally we interviewed him in March. We called the blog post with our discussion “Jay Sanguinetti’s Research in tPBM, Non-invasive Treatment Modalities and Meditation“. You can read that blog post following this link.

Jay Sanguinetti 

What is photobiomodulation: photophysical and photochemical events

Over the past 40 years, researchers have shown that light in the visible or near infrared spectrum stimulates, regenerates, or heals physiological systems. Non-thermal and non-ionizing light elicits photophysical and photochemical events on biological tissues that have been relatively well-defined. This phenomenon, termed photobiomodulation, has led to therapeutic interventions in many domains. For example, photobiomodulation therapy reduces inflammation, pain perception, and enhances wound healing. Of course, if cells in the body respond positively to light, then cells in the brain may also be influenced by photobiomodulation.

In the past decade, researchers have begun showing that light can penetrate the skull to positively impact brain function. This method is called transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM), and it has exciting possibilities. Thus, tPBM can be used as both a tool to study brain function, as well as a therapeutic intervention for brain diseases.

Photobiomodulation Applications: direction and promise

There are so many interesting directions for photobiomodulation. The therapeutic effects on the body are widespread. One interesting area is sports medicine. Light therapy enhances muscle repair and many athletes are beginning to see benefits of using light to help with recovery. You can image the athlete of the future with a light device at their home to assist in recovery from injury. However, my main interest in photobiomodulation is in Brain wellness. We are facing an epidemic with the aging baby-boomer population. Between now and 2050, there will be almost 30 million “boomers” with Alzheimer’s disease, and we currently have no reliable treatments.

Several interesting studies are suggesting that photobiomodulation may be a potential intervention for this devastating disease. The idea is that near-infrared light (NIR) can stimulate some of the natural healing and regenerating processes in neurons. Furthermore, the same applies to the neuron support cells. Hence, the NIR helps the brain clean out the beta-amyloid plaques, reduces inflammation and helps the brain fight the disease.  This is truly exciting, and I hope to launch my own study with photobiomodulation and Alzheimer’s Disease soon.

Benefits of Photobiomodulation for Mindfulness

Our research focuses on using neurotechnology to enhance mindfulness training. Mindfulness has many health and cognitive benefits. Thus, we hope to find a way to accelerate the acquisition of mindfulness skills, so those health benefits can scale. Furthermore, mindfulness is a powerful intervention for many neurological and psychiatric disorders. For example, mindfulness is a potential intervention for addiction. We are currently working on a paradigm to combine photobiomodulation with mindfulness in order to help patients learn the mindfulness skills quicker. We already know that photobiomodulation can enhance working-memory, and we can learn from previous experiments. If photobiomodulation can help patients learn mindfulness skills quicker with a wearable photobiomodulation technology, then we have the potential to reduce suffering on a large scale. This is truly exciting.

Photobiomodulation is a safe, effective, and relatively inexpensive technology. Many of the diseases of the brain are hard to treat, because the brain is such a complex system. It is also difficult to directly modulate brain function. Photobiomodulation offers a potentially powerful technology to restore brain function and to selectively modulation brain activity. Almost all neurological and psychiatric disorders of the brain involve inflammation. Photobiomodulation may reduce brain inflammation, which means that it could be beneficial for many brain disorders. Importantly, the intervention, using photbiomodulation, can be done at home, which means that the technology could scale easily. This is truly exciting since many of the brain interventions must be applied in a doctor’s office under supervision, which is cost prohibitive for many patients.

In Conclusion

We thought that it would be very fitting to end this blog post with a very brief video clip of an interview with another scientists, Dr. Jeffrey Knight, PhD. In this short video Dr. Knight, a clinical neuropsychologist, speaks about photobiomodulation, its effects and about how to assess the benefits of transcranial photobimodulation. Take a look.

Newcomers to the world of brain photobiomodulation, as well as skeptics, often ask these three questions: “1. Can light penetrate into the brain? 2. Does the brain respond to photobiomodulation (PBM)? and 3. Does the brain respond positively?”

Nature Scientific Reports published a paper in April 2019, titled “Pulsed Near Infrared Transcranial and Intranasal Photobiomodulation Significantly Modulates Neural Oscillations: a pilot exploratory study”. This paper provides scientific evidence that answers the above three questions with a resounding ‘Yes’.

In this randomized double-blind study, the Vielight Neuro Gamma was applied to 20 human subjects with healthy brains. Using near infrared light emitting diodes (LED), pulsing at 40 Hz and focusing on the default mode network, this study presented a novel discovery in how the brain responds to PBM. The investigation demonstrated that the power spectrum in the high frequency brain waves of alpha, beta and gamma was significantly increased, whereas the low frequency spectrum of delta and theta was decreased. The recalibration in the power spectrum indicates improved attention and cognition. There were also greater global inhibition and higher connectivity in the high frequency bands. These are features of a brain with better functions and organization.

A Few Words from the Vielight Founder

Co-investigator, Dr. Lew Lim, Founder of Vielight, added: “Over the years, I have been asked these three questions repeatedly by scientists and members of the public alike. The findings of this study are of huge significance in the use of the transcranial and intranasal Vielight devices. Until this study was published in this high-impact, peer-reviewed journal, we never had a sufficiently solid ground for skeptics to accept, and we could only offer hypothetical answers. Now we have proof for the nay-sayers and strong evidence for the early adopters of our technology to feel that their confidence in us is justified. Furthermore, this landmark study makes transcranial-intranasal photobiomodulation (PBM) a reliable and effective technology for non-invasive brain stimulation method. Thus, the Vielight Neuro can be used both at home and in clinics as an easy-to-use, portable device that does not require any special training.

We can now move on to expand our research on the potential of transcranial PBM as well as on how it can be used
to treat brain conditions, perhaps, even boost human capabilities. In this respect, our research agenda is already looking
very busy”.

Vielight’s Pivotal Alzheimer’s Clinical Trial Recruits its
First Participants

The primary site for Vielight’s pivotal Alzheimer clinical trial, St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, has recruited its first participants during the last week of May 2019. This is a major milestone for Vielight after two years of intense preparation.

The trial will be a randomized, placebo-controlled study involving 228 subjects with moderate to severe cognitive impairments due to Alzheimer’s Disease.
This pivotal trial will be conducted across North America. St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada is the first among the eight sites that will carry out the study. The protocol of the study has been reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada.

The device in investigation, the Vielight Neuro RX Gamma, directs near infrared light (NIR) to selected regions of the brain. The NIR is pulsing at the gamma rate of 40 Hz. Subject to regulatory clearance, the device will be indicated for Alzheimer patients with moderate to severe impairment. This is the group that demands the most care with the largest economic burden.

This clinical trial is timely against the backdrop of many unsuccessful attempts by pharmaceutical and device companies to demonstrate acceptable efficacy and safety to address the disease. Currently, no other modality, that is in a clinical trial, is expected to demonstrate clinical outcomes within the time anticipated for the Vielight study to be completed.

Studies Warrant to Move Trial Forward

Recently published studies have shed more light on the potential of the Neuro RX Gamma to modify the pathology of Alzheimer’s Disease. These studies presented findings in clinical assessments and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), warranting the move forward with the large pivotal clinical trial.
The trial will be independently managed by the Applied Health Research Centre (AHRC), a methodology center affiliated with St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto. Further information and contact details for participation enquiries can be found at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03484143.

Scientists’ Remarks about Photobiomodulation and Alzheimer’s Disease

The Principal Investigator at St. Michael’s Hospital, Dr. Corinne Fischer, M.D., said: “In spite of substantial efforts to establish effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, progress has been, unfortunately, limited, and a cure does not yet exist. Although it is not conventional as an Alzheimer’s disease solution, we look forward to investigating the potential of the Vielight technology in the treatment of this difficult disease, based on promising early evidence.”

Michael Hamblin Ph.D., Retired Principal Investigator at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School, said: “For more than 50 years, researchers have been demonstrating the potential of PBM to treat many medical conditions. However, large controlled clinical trials have been elusive. Vielight has been the first to demonstrate successful clinical outcomes for dementia in small early investigations, and we look forward to the findings of this pivotal trial.”

Lew Lim, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Vielight, expressed, “A very complex disease like Alzheimer’s poses a big challenge to any researcher, and even more so for a small team like ours. Despite the solid science and strong early evidence, few were ready to ride with us. I am grateful to the courageous parties who have helped and encouraged us to get to this point of a major clinical trial. I hope that we will all be a part of something special and important in the end.”

Dr. Lew Lim to present at the Science of Consciousness Conference

On June 27th, 2019, Dr. Lew Lim will give a talk entitled, “Photobiomodulation-induced fast brain oscillations can elevate consciousness and cognition.” His presentation will take place at the Science of Consciousness Conference in Interlaken, Switzerland. This event is an annual gathering of like-minded scientists exploring new knowledge and theories on human consciousness for the advancement of humankind. Dr. Mahta Karimpoor and Dr. Hilary Au will also be present to demonstrate the novel ability of the Neuro Pro device to positively and acutely shift mental states.

Dr. Lim commented, “Our recent discoveries in the effects of photobiomodulation on the brain has given us new understanding about the behavior of the brain at different states. It is a big deal that we can induce improved mental states, virtually at will. This is a first case for a brain stimulation device to deliver this magnitude of brain response with no safety issues. The fact that the medium of modulation is the photon, which is a quantum particle, offers opportunities for extraordinary brain modulation and for new theories.”

Neuroimaging modalities like fMRI have begun to uncover the brain areas that are dysfunctional in disorders like depression. Non-invasive neuromodulation technologies like transcranial photobiomodulation allow us to target those brain areas for new treatments. tPBM is such an easy and cost-effective form of neuromodulation that the technology could be scaled rather quickly.

In late March 2019, we reached out to Prof. Jay Sanguinetti Ph.D. Prof. Sanguinetti’s research focuses on neurocognitive applications for clinical non-invasive treatment and neuroenhancement. Despite his full schedule, he agreed to answer a few questions and elaborate more on his groundbreaking work.

In his answers, Prof. Sanguinetti highlights the opportunities that photobiomodulation (PBM) and, specifically, transcranial photobimodulation (tPBM) present to modern neuroscientists. You will sense considerable potential, hope and pride for his field of research and his work in Sanguinetti’s words. Perhaps, these feelings come through because this researcher’s journey can lead to significant discoveries and advancement of non-invasive treatment modalities. Furthermore, applications for such potential discoveries can be numerous, as you will find out from the interview below.

Non-Invasive Transcranial Photobiomodulation

Q: It looks like your primary interest lies with research in neurocognitive applications. What attracts you to this field, and why do you think it is worth pursuing?

A: My interests are in two broad categories, clinical treatment, and neuroenhancement. Neuroimaging modalities like fMRI have begun to uncover the brain areas that are dysfunctional in disorders like depression. Non-invasive neuromodulation technologies like transcranial photobiomodulation allow us to target those brain areas for new treatments. This is exciting because it gives us a level of specificity that phrenological interventions cannot. I’m also interested in using non-invasive neuromodulation for neuroenhancement. For example, imagine that you could use a simple and safe device that allowed you to learn the piano or how to meditate twice as fast without any side effects. I think that would be worth-while to create something like that!

Importance of Research in Non-invasive Treatment Modalities

Q: In one of the descriptions of your interests, you prominently note the factor of non-invasive applications. Why non-invasiveness is so relevant and critical to your research? Why is it so important?

A: Non-invasive neuromodulation means affecting brain activity with a wearable device. That’s in contrast to invasive Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) where a neurosurgeon inserts an electrode directly into the brain. DBS works beautifully for disorders like Parkinson ’s disease and there is some evidence it works for depression and OCD.  Although DBS is highly efficacious, it has a major drawback: It requires brain surgery! So, the major advantage of non-invasive technologies is that they may allow us to gain the power of DBS to treat neurological and psychiatric disease, but without going through the trouble of brain surgery.

Q: You study various forms of non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation. How prominent is transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) with near infrared light (NIR) is in your work? What could you tell us about your research in the field of tPBM? What are the relevant applications for tPBM that you research supports?

A: I am new to the transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) field. I became interested in how various forms of energy – mechanical energy, electromagnetism, light – influence neural activity, and I came across the fascinating field of tPBM. We have now completed a series of experiments using PBM to enhance learning in a healthy population of undergraduate students. Our goal is to use tPBM for neuroenhancement during learning tasks. We predict that tPBM could be used during the acquisition of new skills, to learn new information, or to perform better on tasks that require focused attention.

We chose the Neuro Gamma device because it flickers the light at 40 Hz. Brain oscillations between 25 and 100 Hz are known as gamma oscillations and are related to higher-level cognitive functions like attention. They are proposed to be the neural correlate of consciousness. Currently, it is not known whether the flicker rate of tPBM can directly influence neural oscillations, but there are some promising pilot results that suggest that they might.  Therefore, we selected the Neuro Gamma in an attempt to enhance cognitive performance on a learning task.  If the experiment is successful, then the enhancement could be due to enhancement of cellular function (the basic mechanism of tPBM), due to the influence of neural oscillations, or both.

Q: These days you are conducting a very interesting study involving the military. In this study, you are employing Vielight devices to test their effect on your subjects. What can you tell us today, considering that the study is still ongoing?

A: The overall goal was to enhance learning on a threat-detection task. Participants received tPBM during the learning phase of the task with the hope of enhancing their ability to focus on the task or to learn from the stimulus cues.  Our participants are undergraduate subject at the University of New Mexico, but the project funding comes from the Department of Defense. This is a basic experiment to ask whether tPBM can enhance cognitive performance.  Our results are encouraging so far, but we have not submitted our research for publication so I am unable to divulge too much at this point

We are using a task that Dr. Vince Clark has previously used with another form of non-invasive neuromodulation, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Dr. Clark has previously shown that just 20 minutes of tDCS doubles the learning rate on the threat-detection task. This result has been replicated in his lab and others. Thus, we have a nice baseline and experimental paradigm to compare our tPBM results with.  One nice thing about using this paradigm is that we know how big the effect size is with tDCS. This fact will allow us to directly compare the size of our effect with tPBM.

Researching Effects of Transcranial Photobiomodulation on Meditation

Q: I understand that you are also looking into researching the effect of transcranial PBM on meditation. Can you describe your experience? What are you looking for? What do you think is the future of tPBM in meditation, and improvement on a person’s well-being in general? The latter is the subject to validation studies, of course.

 

 

A: Yes, this is a new area and we are actively planning several experiments.  So far, we have used tPBM in pilot experiments, so I am unable to say much.  Given that caveat, we have had several advanced meditators report positive effects with tPBM. The meditators claim that the device helps them to enter a focused, calm, or detached meditation state that is consistent with their practice. Based on these self-reports, we are designing experiments to validate these claims empirically.  If tPBM can help meditators benefit quicker from their practice, there will be many practical applications.

Meditation has many positive benefits, and scientific research supports them, including interventions for neurological and psychiatric disease.  However, it often takes immense effort and practice to reap the benefits of meditation. Thus, tPBM may help meditators experience the benefits of meditation quicker. This factor would lead to positive effects for the regular meditator as well as for the clinical populations.

One interesting thing is that several papers have shown that meditators enhance their gamma brain oscillations (that I discussed above) while they are meditating. In fact, the more someone meditates, the bigger the gamma effect becomes. This may be due to the way meditation enhances the control of attention, or how it generally alters consciousness. Both of which are related to gamma oscillations.

The Neuro Gamma should enhance mindful awareness

Since gamma oscillations are related to meditation and mindfulness, we predict that the Neuro Gamma should enhance mindful awareness. However, gamma oscillations occur in the range of about 25 Hz to 100 Hz or more. Thus, we asked Vielight for a tPBM device that would give us control over the flicker rate. We acquired such a device from Vielight and are currently testing frequencies from 1 Hz to 120 Hz on meditators.  So far, as you may expect, meditators like frequencies above 40 Hz, especially the higher frequencies. This is an exciting area of research, and we hope to validate the self-report claims soon.

Q: What are you next near-term and medium-term plans and hopes for your research in general and PBM research specifically?

A: If the research supports the use of tPBM for clinical applications and neuroenhancement, then I plan to make this a large part of my research agenda. tPBM is such an easy and cost-effective form of neuromodulation that the technology could be scaled rather quickly.  For example, imagine that tPBM could help meditators learn meditation skills quicker. We could use this could as a clinical intervention. We could create a package and give it out to clinics rather easily, which could help reduce suffering on a large scale. However, first things first, – we must do the science to know how effective tPBM combined with meditation is.